Some Thoughts on Parenting

I've run across some thought-provoking quotes in my reading over the last week that I feel compelled to share. I hope they will inspire you as much as they have me.

From "For the Children's Sake" by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay:

"...the Christian world view, properly applied, produces an atmosphere in which the child is accepted just as he is. He does not have to prove himself, pass a test, or show particular talent. He is valuable and unique. He is loved by God, valued and respected by Him.
His mind is not looked down upon; he flourishes in the invigorating atmosphere of sharing truly worthwhile interests with people who like him as a person. His own ideas and choices count. There is an atmosphere of hope and sure expectations. We respect the child's ability to achieve a proper task or skill; there is not the atmosphere of fear or failure. There is an atmosphere of friendship, creativity, and the security produced when human conduct is contained within the boundaries of God's law for us.
This moral atmosphere is not judgmental. The atmosphere is one where parent/child and teacher/pupil are all under the same authority. It is a realistic situation. There is not an atmosphere tense with unreal or perfectionist standards. They can face up to failure and realize that tomorrow will be a new day.
The atmosphere is stimulating because there is a common bond, too, in the area of enjoying knowledge. The atmosphere produced in home or school is a positive one when the adult is eagerly alive to the vital interest in book, subject, activity, or what have you."

We are so far from this ideal situation, but I pray that we can increasingly achieve bits and pieces of it as time goes by. I hope that when my kids are adults and look back on their childhood and home/school environment, that they will be warmed with memories of comfort, love, and acceptance. And going along with these thoughts is a quote that reminds me how to achieve this goal.

"If you treat a man as he is, he will stay as he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become the bigger and better man."
--Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I need to treat my children like the beautiful, responsible, honest, compassionate, and loving people that they "ought to be and could be," always giving them the benefit of the doubt, granting them mercy, treating them tenderly, correcting them lovingly. What lofty goals! But with God's help, I pray we will keep striving to attain them!